McCarthy friendship central to teamwork

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, Calif., is the one who chose Wheaton Congressman Peter Roskam to a national Republican leadership position, as chief deputy whip in the House.

And while McCarthy is essentially teaching Roskam the ropes, he doesn't necessarily see it that way. Instead, he says, the two are friends, their families are friends, and they have very similar backgrounds.

So, they're a natural team.

“I don't feel like I”m guiding him,” McCarthy says. “I feel like we're doing it together. We spend a lot of our days together. But when you look at our backgrounds and you look at our families, I like the idea of the relationship he has with his children and with his wife. I happen to have two kids. When we got sworn in there's a picture of Peter, his daughter, me and my daughter on the floor. They're even Facebook friends too. We became friends and it's a bond just beyond one another.”

And that won't end when they leave their current jobs, he said.

“I would say whenever we leave this job, we'll still be friends, still wonder about what each other's children are doing.”

Kerry Lester